My Little Pony: Ferocity is Malice: Starbuck
by TheRealBoyofosho
Summary: Three young ponies try to discover what happened in their past, and why they've been treated in a cruel manner, and what the tyrant Nightcruel plans.
1. Lost

Chapter 1

Lost

I knew that I was lost.

I thought I might have been sleeping, but I was awake, but I couldn't open my eyes. I struggled with the concept of thinking while being unconscious.

My brain went crazy with anxiety. There was a certain uncomforting aspect; I felt the only explanation is that I was not where I wanted to be. Not where I was supposed to be.

My eyes snapped open with realization that it was possible to do so. I managed to adjust to the dim fluorescent lights that cast across the cold, rusty cell I was in. Where was I? Not that it mattered, really. Who was I? I looked around the quiet room. Even the slightest scuffle across the iron floor made a shocking sound. What am I? Hopefully, I was just like everypony else.

Yes. When I looked at my front arms, they were the same dark purple-grayish arms with hooves at the end. Thank Celestia! My tail was black, as I always had remembered, too. My wings were fine as well.

Though I barely remembered anything. I was lucky to remember my own features, otherwise something was terribly wrong.

Something was _still _terribly wrong, though, and that was where and who I was. I examined my surroundings to get a bearing on where I might be and, perhaps, some way to escape from the obscure area.

Metal, metal, rusty metal, blood… blood! There was a dead pony lying against the wall, its flaming red mane in an unorganized fashion. Its arms flopped uselessly to the floor. Its back hooves were missing, and still bleeding profusely. I wasn't even sure that it was a red-maned pony anymore.

I slowly approached the dead body; it looked familiar, from the little amount that my brain had recovered. I tilted its head forward precariously.

I could see the pony's brain. I backed away, not daring to yell out, or stand up, for someone could hear me, if there was anyone left in this hellhole. Another thought of the pony's exposed cranium made me pass out on the floor, just before hearing,

"Just in time."

~O~

The familiar sensation of waking up in an unknown environment occurred to me again as I heard a demented voice sift through my ears.

"We are going to make a three inch incision on the jugular," cooed the terrifying pony. "There will be a lot of blood, so I advise you to step back, Forestprep."

"Okay, Meditail…" answered a young stallion's voice. My eyes opened wide and I saw a blue pony with a calm mane and circular glasses approaching my throat with a scalpel.

"NO!" I kicked up with my rear hooves and disarmed the horrible doctor. His scalpel flew through the air and narrowly missed who I assumed was Forestprep, a green stallion with a pencil and paper, but was otherwise a respectable looking pony. What was he doing here?

An intern, of course. He would waste his life away on all of the wrong things, studying under these ponies.

But this was no time for sorrowing. It was time for action. I bounded off of the operating table as quick as I could, which was… not very quick. They had me drugged.

My slow movement speed gave time for the medical pony to retrieve his scalpel and lunge at me again. I quickly parried and knocked the scalpel away from him again, and it spun toward Forestprep once more. The medical pony pinned me to the floor. I could smell blood on his breath. Forestprep picked up the scalpel.

"What should I do, Meditail?" cried Forestprep.

"Kill him, you fool!" shouted the medic. Forestprep readied the scalpel like a throwing knife, holding it behind his shoulder. The pony looked nervously from Meditail to me. I knew I was dead. I saw the movement of Forestprep's hoof and I shut my eyes tight again. Where the hell I was I would never know.

Warm blood drenched my eyelids. I flipped over and wiped away the blood. I saw Meditail, being absolutely still, a scalpel in his forehead. Forestprep had killed Meditail. Had it been an accident?

Forestprep was nowhere to be found. Nevertheless, he had saved my life, and for that I thank him. I noticed a bandage just beneath my ribcage, and I tore it off, replacing it with another bandage that I found in the operation room. I could feel the medical supply counteracting the drug within me. I stuffed more bandages into my fist and thrust the door open.

I would not waste my escape chance for the world.

~O~

It was quiet.

I like quiet, but silence was something I despised. I was in a cold room, and there were no ponies around. Was this some seclusion? Some odd dream, a wild fantasy? It certainly seemed real. My Achilles' heel bled profusely. I could barely move.

"You're next ma'am, goodbye." a voice emanated somewhere down the hallway on the other side of old metal bars. It took me a moment to realize that I was lying in a pool. A red pool.

I needed to escape.

"Ma'am, please get up." said the same voice. I looked up and realized the bars had opened. A black pony with dark shades looked down at me.

"I –I can't move, sir," I protested. "My hoof is broken."

"But of course," the guard pony said. "I'll help you up, then."

I used my handicap to my advantage. As soon as the guard extended his hoof to me, I pulled him down and forced him into my dark, boil red blood pool. He coughed and spluttered. I held him until he passed out, for I knew I could not kill him. I stole his keys and locked him in there, and began crawling down the hallway that looked as rusty and old as my smelly cell, leaving a trail of blood. I held my keys tightly. I can remember my name. Heartstrong. My cutie mark? A heart. Super unexpected, of course, but I still knew some about me. I was happy to realize that I had was escaping, but it pained me to think of other ponies that were imprisoned. My vision was swimming; I was losing a lot of blood. I heard hooves clicking along the ground. I was done for.

To my surprise, the Pegasus pony leapt over me.

~O~

I galloped down the corridor quickly, not hesitating to hop and skip. I was okay. I would be home soon, and this would all be in the past, whatever it was.

I passed by my previous cell. The dead pony I had roomed with had disappeared, even though I was still caked with its blood.

"Help me…" a voice called faintly from behind me. I spun around, almost slipping on something wet.

"Who are you?" I asked, not seeing anypony.

"I'm… um… down here," it answered. I looked down and saw a dark pink pony with a red mane like the one from the cell. Her cutie mark was a heart. Her purple eyes stared into mine.

"I'm Heartstrong…" replied the pony. "Please help… These ponies have captured me. I don't know what they're trying to do, but I'm losing a lot of blood." I had only just noticed she was lying in a pool of it, and it was flowing steadily from her heel, explaining why she couldn't move. I looked from her to the door. My chances of survival were lower if I took her. But my heart got the better of my mind, and I lugged her over my shoulder. The hair from her fiery red mane tickled my face. I sprinted to the door, Heartstrong still on my shoulder.

"What's your name?" asked Heartstrong.

"I…" It was a surprisingly good question. "I don't know."

I fastened my hooves around the door handle. I didn't know who I was, or who this mare was, but we were safe.

Until I realized the door was locked.

"No!" I cried.

"I knocked a guard out and took his set of keys…" Heartstrong cut in. She held out a hoof weakly, and there were five keys on a small keychain. I tried each of them, and on the fourth key, the door opened into the sunlight. Heartstrong's head drooped.

"No, come on, Heartstrong, it's gonna be okay…" I assured her, but I wasn't positive. She had lost so much blood. I wasn't sure why I cared for her so much, I had never known her, I don't think. I ran to the nearest civilization I could find.

~O~

I awoke in a warm stable bed, hay surrounding me. There was a bucket of apples for my eating.

"Heartstrong is awake!" said a pony. I blinked.

"Yeah, I am." The pony that had said my name was an azure pony with an even darker blue mane.

"Hi, Heartstrong." said the blue pony. "I'm Azurefaith, our town's MediPony. I've been nursing you for two days, I'm glad to see you're okay."

"Thank you, Azurefaith," I answered. "I thought I was dead for sure. Good to know there's still a good MediPony or two in Equestria."

"You're welcome." answered Azurefaith. "Somepony wants to visit you, and I daresay you'd remember him." The door opened, and my savior pony strode in.

"Oh my goodness, thank you so much!" I cried out. The pony smiled. I still didn't know his name.

"Before you ask, everypony says that my name is Starbuck." said the Pegasus pony.

"Well, thank you so much, Starbuck!" I said happily. "You saved my life. I don't know how I can repay you."

"Well," said Starbuck. "You were the one who stole the keys from the guard that let us escape."

"But you decided to take me with you instead of leaving me for dead." I said back.

"We've both got things to thank each other for," Starbuck said finally. "But I'm hungry. I'm going to go eat."

"Where are we?" I asked.

"We're on the outskirts of Manehattan, in a Bed and Breakfast Hotel. Here are some pony coins." Starbuck dropped coins with the ancient Princess Celestia into my hoof. "Breakfast is free, though." He chuckled, and then left the room without saying another word.

~O~

LOOK FOR TRUEBOBJOE'S VERSION: HEARTSTRONG'S VIEWPOINT.


	2. Manehattan

Chapter 2

Manehattan

Azurefaith and I stood outside of the slums of Manehattan. Since the government of Princess Celestia was overthrown, the 9 years of slow downfall produced a poor and crime filled Manehattan. I knew only a bit of it's past, which was not enough.

Azurefaith insisted he come with me to Manehattan on the account that he knew his way around the city. I agreed, thinking that he would be better with Heartstrong. But he insisted, and he had a good cause.

It took us ten minutes to catch one of the newest inventions from Nightcruel industries, a powered carriage. The thing was, nopony had to pull the carriage, reducing work and time. The way it worked was, a pony would sit in the front seat, and push a pad, which would propel the vehicle. That's all I knew, and all I needed to know.

We got to the city in a matter of about 23 minutes, listening to the powered carriage driver's choice of Ponyradio, another relatively new invention from Equestria's heart of industry, Fillydelphia.

The city was fairly trashed, with random gangs here and there along the streets. The law in Manehattan never really enforced any of their laws, providing a very bad atmosphere.

We walked around till we found a diner, and went in. The diner was even dirtier than the streets, but the ponies here were nice. A waitress found us a table and we sat down.

"So, how do you like the city so far?" he asked me.

"It's… Interesting." I replied, not trying to offend anyone.

"You should see Fillydelphia. The corporate science companies have control over everything there. You can't sneeze without one of them hearing you." He said.

"Maybe we should just watch the show." I said, pointing to the out of place stage, which wasn't supposed to be in a diner.

The singer's voice was smooth, and blended nicely with the background music. After the song was done, we resumed the conversation.

"What is a stage doing in a diner?" I asked.

He shrugged as the waitress handed us water.

"I heard rumors about an assassination. Tomorrow." he stated blankly.

"Really? Who's getting killed?" I asked.

"Some voice of the people named Spitfire I think. The 'law' thinks she's been running her mouth for a bit too long, and their sending someone to do the dirty work," he said. "I don't see their reason, but eh, it's just another death."

"Maybe we can stop it?" I asked. "She might be able to tell us about the city."

"Maybe. I mean, if you want to. I don't really care, I'm just following you." He replied.

"Well, let's do it. When's it supposed to happen?"

"3:30, I heard the sniper might be atop the surrounding buildings. How are you going to stop it?"

"I think I have a way." I replied.

~O~

It didn't take long to find where she was speaking. The ponies here gladly told us where we could find the speech.

"Do you have the knife?" Azurefaith asked.

"Yeah, it's in my foreleg pocket," I said.

"Good, now don't get killed."

"Sure." I replied.

The square was filled with all the ponies that had gathered to hear the pony's thoughts on what the governments doing to them. Many were looking like she didn't know what she was talking about. Others looked like they believed every word she said.

Focus, I told myself. The assassin was on the rooftops, so I looked up. The assassin was just beginning to walk out onto the ledge of a building east of where I was standing. He was going to snipe from the top of a half destroyed apartment building. He took out a piece of weaponry; I recognized it as another new invention, the sniper rifle.

I checked my watch. 3:25, I didn't have much time. I started to walk towards the back of the building. I flew up to a low building, readying for my ascent up to the top. I made sure everything was secure, and started to fly up. I landed as softly as a snowflake on the roof, and crept towards the pony's back.

He was unaware of his current position, and was more focused keeping the pony with fire orange hair in his sights. He was going to be an easy kill. Two steps closer and… _BANG_. I quickly stepped back, trying to reverse the past events. He quickly turned around to face me, and I quickly jumped back as he shot a bullet at me with his rifle. I missed it by a couple of inches, getting back into a combative stance. Turns out, he had a knife of his own, and was prepared to stab me with it.

I took out my knife with my mouth, and lunged. I got the knife lodged in his throat; he gagged and stumbled back as he fell off the building. The crowd noticed the body as it slammed into the ground. Some screamed and ran away, others realized what I had done, and began cheering.

Spitfire just stared in shock, and wasn't focused on her surroundings. Another pony was violently pushing through the crowd to try to get to Spitfire. He had a knife in his mouth.

I looked around, seeing what I could use to stop him. The rifle. I didn't know how to use it. Before he fell, it looked like he had his hoof on a lever. I tried it, looking through the scope. Somepony had jumped on the backup assassin. I zoomed further on them. Heartstrong had leapt onto him to stop him. I scoped on the assassin's head, hoping I would hit the right target… _BANG_. The rifle's shot surprised me, and I stumbled back, but the shot had hit its mark.

There was another sound. I looked behind the building, and saw a group of police heading towards the scene. I looked back to Spitfire, who was running. Why? She was a Pegasus, couldn't she just fly? I found out when I saw her left wing was nowhere to be found.

I had to get to her, quick. I jumped off the ledge, my wings unfolding in the wind, I glided over to where she was, and landed in front of her.

"You have to come with me!" I yelled against the crowd's screams.

She just nodded as I picked her up with my legs, flying off. As I rose higher, I looked around for Azurefaith. He was in the middle of the chaos, trying to calm the crowd down and get them to safety. We both knew what would happen if they were seen around us.

I looked down at Spitfire. She was scared, making nervous glances around the ground. The cops were almost to the square. I really wanted Azurefaith to evacuate the crowd faster. Spitfire looked up at me.

"Where are you taking me?" She asked with fear in her voice.

"Somewhere safe, I presume." Azurefaith said from behind.

"Where though?" another voice said.

"How many people are you with?" Spitfire asked.

"One. Who's that guy?" I asked Azurefaith.

"He was trying to do the same thing as us. He works for the Saboteurs of Manehattan." He said. I looked down at the figure Azurefaith was carrying. He was a colt with a brown mane and dark tan coat. His cutie mark was covered by a light hoodie. He shyly waved at me. I glared back.

"We can't go picking up every single person on our side Azurefaith, we were only supposed to get Spitfire out of there." I said.

"Well we could always use an inside voice. Dr. Garner here works as a medic for the 'law' of Manehattan. And the Saboteurs help with destroying the central government of Manehattan, The Spire." He said, clearly defending 'Garner'.

"Sorry, just doing my job." The colt said. "I have a place where we can stay."

"Fine," I said, leaning over to Azurefaith. "But if this gets out of hand, then I'm going to kill him."

"I know, but we can trust him." He said. I still wasn't sure if we could trust him, but I'd give him a chance. Who knows?

~O~

Garner directed us from the air until he pointed to an alleyway. Spitfire has fallen asleep in my arms, and was softly snoring as we floated down. Once we landed, Garner walked over to what seemed like a random spot on the wall. He kicked it, and it pushed open.

We all walked through it, one by one. I softly nudged Spitfire and told her we were here. She got up hesitantly.

"C'mon, hurry up." Garner said to me.

"You try to drag a mature mare around wherever you go." I spat back. "Take Spitfire with you. I'm going to go get someone."

"Who?" asked Garner. "Can you trust them?"

"Definitely," I answered. "In fact, I think we were in the same boat before we even knew it."

~O~

"Heartstrong?" I tried to open the door slowly. It creaked loudly nevertheless. Light poured into the stable she stayed in.

"What is it?" replied the dreary voice of Heartstrong.

"Are you alright?" I questioned her.

"I'm fine, just a bit tired," said Heartstrong. "I've been walking around the city all day."

"Oh, that's understandable," I said back. "Well, it's been a crazy day for me, Heartstrong, and I need you to come with me."

"Would it involve some important voice of the ponies named Spitfire?" asked Heartstrong.

"Perhaps," I said conspicuously. "Come on." Heartstrong stood up and we walked out of the drafty stable together.

"So, would you mind sharing what happened?"

~O~

We arrived at the alleyway Garner had led us to just in time for me to wrap up my story.

"Interesting." Heartstrong commented. "I think this could be a conspiracy, Starbuck!"

"Do you?" I asked. "I think so, too, and I'm pretty sure that's why Garner wants us."

"Garner?" asked Heartstrong.

"That'd be me." Garner galloped into view. "Come in here."

"Be right there, Garner." I said.

"No, we need you now."

"Fine." I pushed past Garner, still not feeling any sort of need to give him respect.

~O~

We were all sitting in one room. There was a small circular table, which barely had enough room for the five of us. Spitfire and Heartstrong sat on either side of me, and Garner and Azurefaith sat across the table.

"What do you want, Garner?" I said coarsely.

"We need to destroy Manehattan's legislation." Garner replied bluntly.

"Are you insane?" Heartstrong answered. "Destruction of the legislature would cause all hell to break loose in the city!"

"Isn't it already bad enough?" I added.

"You don't understand," Garner said, "The legislation is corrupt."

"Really?" I said sarcastically. "I had no idea."

"The entire government of Manehattan will be transformed into a dictatorship if the legislation passes it," Garner informed our group, "Right now, if the vote continues the way it does, it will."

"They'll have to re-elect the officials," Spitfire pointed out. "And if they get suspicious, they'll have the vote passed immediately."

"Why do you think that?" Heartstrong asked.

"They'll know someone is rebelling, and they'll try to crush the resistance." Spitfire answered.

"True." Heartstrong said finally.

"We have a dilemma, then." Azurefaith said obviously.

"I've got one plan," I spoke through the following silence, "I'm not entirely sure it will work, though."

"What is it, Starbuck?"

"We'll have to make all of their deaths look natural."

READ TRUEBOBJOE'S VERSION: HEARTSTRONG'S VIEWPOINT HERE - .net/u/2814107/TrueBobJoe


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